Master Degree in Japan any good?

[cmhs75]

Hello guys


I’m thinking of studying in Japan


And, if I remember correctly, there are a number of Japanese members on this forum, so please help out

I might do my Masters degree over at Japan. And I need to gte some information.

Like how tuff is it to learn the whole Kanji thing? And, are the Universities in Japan any good? Is it really expensive to live in Japan, and can someone easily adapt to it?

My Masters is going to be in Photonics Engineering.

I appreciate any help anyone can offer, and feel free to comment even if it’s off topic, let’s just chat about this (Brain storm)

 

[Juice]

You are a brave, brave man.

 

[NsXMas]

Are you going to work in Japan? In the US the Japanese Master's degree may not be worth as much.

I think it's an admirable idea, but not a realistic one.

You are going to study a new (very difficult) language at the same time as going for a new degree? Good luck!! You're certainly smarter than me.

 

[Da Hapa]

Hello guys


I’m thinking of studying in Japan


And, if I remember correctly, there are a number of Japanese members on this forum, so please help out

I might do my Masters degree over at Japan. And I need to gte some information.

Like how tuff is it to learn the whole Kanji thing? And, are the Universities in Japan any good? Is it really expensive to live in Japan, and can someone easily adapt to it?

My Masters is going to be in Photonics Engineering.

I appreciate any help anyone can offer, and feel free to comment even if it’s off topic, let’s just chat about this (Brain storm)

I lived in Japan for six months while in college. My university has a very good exchange program that allowed me to live with a Japanese family and study in Japanese university.

To answer some of your questions -

Yes, there are some very, very good schools in Japan. I don't even begin to pretend what the heck "photonics engineering" is however, so I can't give you help in that field.

Yes, it's quite expensive to live in Japan.

Yes, you can get "used to it" but it's very, very different. Unless you're very well off, you're going to have to be accustomed to living in a much smaller space and being cramped.

I am not Japanese but I love the culture and found that the people where fantastic. The culture isn't at all like ours but if you're respectful and polite and make an effort to at least appreciate their ways, you'll be fine.

The language is a real bitch. Not only the written language (Hirigana and Katakana aren't too bad but Kanji is a real mofo.) but the spoken word as well. Japanese grammar and sentence structure aren't anything like English. I am (and was before going to Japan) fairly proficient with Spanish and I only point that out because I had no trouble learning Spanish. Japanese was tough.

And unfortunately... at least in my case... it isn't easy to practice and you lose it far quicker than you pick it up.

 

[cmhs75]

Are you going to work in Japan? In the US the Japanese Master's degree may not be worth as much.

You are going to study a new (very difficult) language at the same time as going for a new degree? Good luck!! You're certainly smarter than me.

I'm not going to work in Japan, and I'm not from the US either.

And the institute I work for (which will be paying my tuition fees in full) will give me a 1 year language learning period. Of course, I don’t want to spend a whole year in Japan studying a language, so I was hopping to cut it less than one year by starting to learn Japanese before I go to the masters which is about 1 year from today.

So far I’m doing good on the Japanese learning issue, I find their grammar to be very weird but understandable. The only problem I’m facing is writing in Japanese which as Da Hapa, refers to it, “a real mofo”. But I still don’t see it as being impossible.

When you said that the Japanese masters degree in the US may not be worth as much, what did you mean by that?

 

[cmhs75]

I
I don't even begin to pretend what the heck "photonics engineering" is however, so I can't give you help in that field.

Yes, it's quite expensive to live in Japan.

.

You can think of photonics engineering as the next generation of electronics engineering. And, form what I know, the leading countries in this field are the US and Japan. I already have the US in my possible Masters direction list, but I also have to consider Japan because getting a student visa in the US after 9/11 is not easy, and I really don’t like to get into trouble, that’s why I’m considering going to Japan, even if it does mean that I have to learn the troublesome Kanji art. And spend a whole year doing so.


When you say expensive, considering that your are on a student budget, is it so expensive that you have to limit your food, or is it just expensive that you have to limit your recreational spending?

 

[Da Hapa]

When you say expensive, considering that your are on a student budget, is it so expensive that you have to limit your food, or is it just expensive that you have to limit your recreational spending?

Expensive either way. I frankly don't recall what the yen/dollar conversion rate was when I was in Tokyo but I have to believe it isn't any better now. You can count on food, clothing, medicine, room, etc. being more expensive than living in Manahattan. At the time, cover charges in Roppongi were like $50 US and that didn't include drinks.

The only and I mean only things that were cheap in Japan were good Japanese food (comp. quality sushi in the US was a lot more expensive) and conversation :biggrin: